


United Within These Walls

by FiresFromOurHearts



Series: Small Harry Potter Things [38]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (kind of), Dumbledore's Army, Gen, Hogwarts Inter-House Unity, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Interrogation, Resistance, Students, These tags sound bad, Torture, Warnings for the Carrows, but it's not too dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts
Summary: Blaise’d been the one hurrying away from the Carrows cackling as they walked up the staircase. And he’d been the one to see the students and knew they wouldn’t escape in time. The Carrows have tricks to track students and Blaise doubts the students knew them. None of the Slytherins did. And he’d been the one to shoo them away and take up a position below the wet paint. He knew what he was doing. He was doing what he should’ve been doing earlier.Being in Slytherin means that you’re often excluded from the rest of Hogwarts. Such are the benefits of belonging to a house with a long history of Death Eaters. You’re more likely to be seen as an enemy than a fellow student.Blaise shrugs, loose-limbed and easy. “Didn’t see anyone,” he says.Blaise Zabini might be a Slytherin. But he'd been a Hogwarts student first. They all had been. It's time for houses to matter less and the one thing that brings them together - Hogwarts - to matter more.
Relationships: Blaise Zabini & Slytherin Student, Seamus Finnigan & Luna Lovegood
Series: Small Harry Potter Things [38]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/719196
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: Genuary 2021





	United Within These Walls

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for the prompt: Write about an interrogation. So, warnings for the Carrows and the use of the crucio. 
> 
> Am I a fan of inter-house unity? Yes. A big yes. So have the start of the seventh-year wherein the houses begin to come together. Blaise is the main character here, but the others appear briefly (not certain I got Luna written very well here, but she's a difficult character to write so). Enjoy!
> 
> (Title inspired by the Sorting Hat's song in 1995).

“We know you didn’t do this Zabini,” Alecto Carrow says, when she catches him leaning against a wall still dripping with red paint. “Tell us who did it and we’ll let you go.” Above his head, two lines are written.

**HARRY POTTER LIVES. DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY RECRUITING.**

Blaise didn’t do it, Alecto’s right. But he won’t give up those who did it either. They’d been a small group of third and fourth years. A Gryffindor, two Hufflepuffs, and a Ravenclaw. No Slytherins—and that’s what had made Blaise’s actions more surprising.

He’d been the one hurrying away from the Carrows cackling as they walked up the staircase. And he’d been the one to see the students and knew they wouldn’t escape in time. The Carrows have tricks to track students and Blaise doubts the students knew them. None of the Slytherins did. And he’d been the one to shoo them away and take up a position below the wet paint. He knew what he was doing. He was doing what he should’ve been doing earlier.

Being in Slytherin means that you’re often excluded from the rest of Hogwarts. Such are the benefits of belonging to a house with a long history of Death Eaters. You’re more likely to be seen as an enemy than a fellow student.

Blaise shrugs, loose-limbed and easy. “Didn’t see anyone,” he says. He doesn’t have the power or influence to be like Draco here and claim he sent someone to get the Carrows. He does, however, have the anonymity to stand up without his family being thrown into the crossfire. And he can lie without giving himself—or anyone else—away.

Amycus steps forward, eyes narrowed. “That paint is wet!” He screeches. “You had to have seen someone!”

Blaise looks left, then right, and makes a show of checking his surroundings. He shrugs once again. “I haven’t seen anyone.”

For a moment, it looks like Amycus will try and throw a spell, and Blaise tightens his grip around the wand in his pocket. But Alecto smiles, slow, and Blaise allows himself a heartbeat of fear before he swallows it down. “Why don’t we go have a meeting in our office instead?” She asks. It sounds like a reasonable request. It’s not a request. It’s an order.

Blaise will not be intimidated. He knows what he’s walking into—it’ll be an interrogation. It could be worse, far worse. After all, he could be forced to turn his wand on fellow students. Following behind them, he slouches. The halls are silent. They always are, and it still feels strange even months later. Hogwarts halls are not made to be silent.

The emptiness feels strange too. The shadows are more foreboding than they usually are. This is the world of Hogwarts now—silent and empty. A war ground where the deaths occur outside the walls and torture occurs in the classroom.

The walk to the Carrows’ office is short, and Blaise sees no one on his way. That’s unsurprising. No one wants to get themselves in the Carrows’ path, especially when they’re in a mood. It’s not like anyone would want to help Blaise anyway—he’s a Slytherin. The only students willing to help him would be other Slytherins, and they’re all likely to be in the dormitories.

Alecto enters first, and gestures to a lonely seat leaning up against the wall. It looks rather uncomfortable. Blaise sits down. He knows that there’s no other choice. Meanwhile, Amycus takes up a position by the door, standing in the way. An obstacle to the path of freedom, Blaise thinks to himself with little humour.

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way,” Alecto says. There’s no good Auror, bad Auror here—just Death Eaters. “You can answer our question or we can force the answer from you.”

“What was the question again?” Blaise asks.

Aleco sighs. “I had hopes for you Zabini.” She flicks her wand, wordlessly sending ropes snaking around Blaise’s arms and tying them to the arms of the chair. “I’ll ask you one more time. Who were the students?”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Blaise responds, letting a smile crawl into his face. He takes delight in Aleco’s screech of rage. A stinging jinx hits his shoulder. It’s mild, but definitely a starter. The smile remains on his face. “Are you deaf? There was no one there.”

This time the spell comes from Amycus’ direction. It hits Blaise on the side, and this one hurts—a cutting jinx with enough strength to leave a bleeding cut on his arm. A hiss escapes him, but he grits his teeth before letting anything else out. He breathes out slowly, then lifts his head to meet Aleco’s gaze. “The hallway was empty when I got there.”

“‘The hallway was empty when I got there,’” Aleco mocks. “Stop lying!” The next spell comes with a warning, not wordless, but a well-known name. “Crucio!”

The pain is agonising. It lances up every bone in Blaise’s body. He feels like he’s dancing on hot coals. He can’t think beyond the pain. Desperately, he wishes to black out. Anything to escape from the pain.

Eventually, he comes back to himself. Screams still echoing in his ears. His throat feels sore, but his body even more so. He’s shaking, tremors running through his muscles. Aleco is grinning at him, something blood thirsty that doesn’t belong anywhere near Hogwarts—near any school.

Before anything can be said, there’s a loud banging on the door. Blaise can’t help it. He feels relieved by that.

Amycus flings the door open, where a student clad in Slytherin green stands. A sixth year. Blaise knows their name, but he can’t push through the pain in his head to think anything. “Professors, there’s a protest going on in the Great Hall!”

Aleco narrows her eyes, but turns away from Blaise. “What? Hasn’t anyone put a stop to this? Where is everyone?”

The sixth year swallows. “Professor Snape is teaching, ma’am, and…”

“And the other teachers are all dissidents against the Dark Lord,” Amycus spits out. “I don’t know how they haven’t been forced into Azkaban yet. Let’s go cut this protest off quickly.”

Aleco nods. “You! Watch him,” she orders the sixth year, and then the Carrows are off, quickly rushing down the hallway.

Meanwhile, the Slytherin steps further into the room, quickly reaching Blaise. He recognises them now. A half-blood who had shared a number of study groups with Blaise for DADA over the years. Not one of his mentees as Blaise would know their names in his sleep—but a friend of one.

They step closer, and then they start unwrapping the rope. “You alright?” They ask quietly.

The trembling is starting to ease and the moment Blaise can stand, he does so. He staggers, but remains on his feet even though the world does its best to spin around him to make him dizzier. “No,” he says grimly, “but let’s go. Thank you for the help.”

They smile. “Heard what you did through the grapevine. Didn’t realise you were a supporter.”

Blaise doesn’t support the Dark Lord. Never has. But that’s not the main reason why he did something. “We’re all students,” he says, leaning against them as they depart from the office. “And they’re just kids. They didn’t deserve what was coming for them.”

“I’m not sure everyone would agree with you,” they—Freddie! Their name’s Freddie—says. Half-blood. Survived a month into this year before retreating to join the other hidden Slytherin students. “But you’ve managed to grab the DA’s attention, which none of us have managed to do. They’re willing to help you.”

Blaise laughs. It feels hysterical. “I suppose they have experience in dealing with this,” he says, clamping a hand over his still-bleeding arm. Merlin, he wishes none of them knew how to deal with this. Wishes things were better.

They make it down the hallway quickly, taking a left turn into a hallway so abandoned that Blaise has only ever seen ghosts use it. There are three students—Luna Lovegood; a Gryffindor—Seamus, Blaise thinks; and another a Hufflepuff student that Blaise only has passing familiarity with. The first is well known as a leader of the DA, so the other two are likely influential as well, Blaise assumes.

“You doing alright there?” The Hufflepuff student asks.

Blaise grins, and tastes blood in his mouth—he bit his tongue at some point. “I’ve been worse,” he says, still shaking, but he’s out from the Carrows now. Not forever. He’ll definitely run into them in the future, and he’ll continue to infuriate them and deny them answers, but he can recover for now. “I’m assuming you’re the ones who got the distraction going?”

“Yeah, Neville’s got something rummaged up to keep the Carrows busy for another ten,” Seamus says, and despite the bandage on his cheek, he looks calm and unharmed. “We’ve got an offer for you though.”

“Oh?” Blaise asks, because he might be injured and in pain, but he’s a Slytherin. He knows to take advantage of the situations that come his way.

“The Wrackspurts don’t seem to like you,” Luna informs him as if in answer. “Good things come.” Then she’s off, wandering down the hallway with her face turned to the ceiling. She’s odd—but she’s smart too. Blaise never knows how to answer her, and uncertainty is something he hates to feel.

“Slytherins can’t all be bad,” Seamus continues, like Luna’s interruption had never happened. “And I’m sure you could do with some help for hiding those the Carrows want gone. We can help you, but we want some help in return.”

Blaise can’t speak for Slytherin as a whole. But there are groups of Slytherins hiding outside the dormitories where the Carrows can’t find them. There are Slytherins who have taken to running patrols down in the dungeons. The first and second years are escorted as much as possible. Everyone moves in groups of three or more.

The world is at war, and so is Hogwarts. They _must_ come together or they’ll suffer more for it. “Hogwarts deserves to be safe,” Blaise agrees, meeting the gaze of Seamus and the Hufflepuff. “I’ll speak to the Slytherins.”

It’s not the beginning—the beginning happened years and years ago. But it is the start of a new resistance in Hogwarts. One that consists of all the houses—not just three. They don’t name themselves, don’t fashion themselves an army. There’s one thing they all have in common, one thing that unites them.

The next day, the recruitment messages are gone. Instead, a new phrase is thrown up on the walls.

**HOGWARTS! IT’S TIME TO FIGHT BACK.**


End file.
